1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a passenger protection apparatus for protecting an occupant of a vehicle, and a control method for the occupant protection apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an art for actuating a force limiter that allows a seatbelt to be extracted while limiting a restraint load applied by a seatbelt (absorbing energy) after deploying an airbag in the event of a collision of a vehicle (e.g., see Published Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. 11-508514 (JP-A-11-508514)). Further, there is known an art in which a seatbelt is provided with an inflation portion for a head-on collision (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 63-258239 (JP-A-63-258239) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-297917 (JP-A-2005-297917)). In addition, there is known an art in which a gas inflation type seatbelt is provided at an upper portion thereof and a lower portion thereof with gas pressure inlet ports respectively, gas is pressurized from the inlet port at the upper portion in the event of a lateral collision, and gas is pressurized from the inlet port at the lower portion in the event of a head-on collision (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-226295 (JP-A-10-226295)).
Incidentally, in an art for deploying an airbag between an occupant restrained by a seatbelt and a vehicle interior member in the event of a head-on collision, the airbag needs to have a capacity to fill the space between the occupant and the vehicle interior member. As a result, the airbag is enlarged in size.